The Parents' Review. [1895] Vol. 06, No. 09 p.641-720.

REDEEMER

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Charlotte Mason’s House of Education,
Scale How, Ambleside, UK, 2009

the Armitt

a

Collection

The Charlotte Mason Digital Collection is a not-for-profit
database created in 2009-2011 to assist scholars, researchers,
educators and students to discover, use, and build upon the
Charlotte Mason Collection of archives, journals and books
housed in the Armitt Library & Museum (UK). To learn more
about this database or to search the digital collection, go to The
Charlotte Mason Digital Collection.

Your use of images from the Charlotte Mason Digital
Collection is subject to a License . To publish images for
commercial purposes, a license fee must be submitted and
permission received prior to publication. To publish or present
images for non-profit purposes, the owner, Redeemer University
College, must be notified at cmdc@ redeemer. ca and submission
of a copy of the context in which it was used also must be
submitted to the owner at cmdc@ redeemer. ca. Credit lines, as
specified in the License , must accompany both the commercial
and non-profit use of each image.

Unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not
download an entire issue of a journal nor may you make multiple
copies of any of the digital images. Higher resolution images are
available. [Low resolution (150 dpi), single copy printing is
permitted: High resolution images for publication can be
purchased. Please contact Redeemer University College in
writing as specified in the License to request high resolution
images.

While the document originals are housed in the Armitt Library &
Museum, Redeemer University College owns the rights to the
Digital Images (in jpg/pdf format) of the original archival
documents and artifacts. The original Digital Images and
database metadata are owned and maintained by Redeemer
University College. Multiple images are bound together in PDF
Packages. Click here to download the latest version of Adobe
Reader for better viewing. In the PDF, click an image thumbnail
to view it.

This project was made possible through collaboration among the
Armitt Library & Museum (Ambleside, UK), Redeemer
University College (Ancaster, Canada) and the University of
Cumbria (UK) and with the financial assistance of the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Need help? If you do not see a side-bar with image thumbnails:

Some of the PDF packages are large and will take some time to download. A very large PDF package may open more successfully
if you download it first to your desktop. (From inside the database record, right-click on the link to the PDF package and save the
link to your desktop.) Once it’s on your desktop, you can open it up with a recent version of Adobe Reader .

If you have a Macintosh with Safari, the default program to open PDFs is Preview, which does not open the PDF packets. Mac
users need to download Adobe Reader . If this cover page appears without a list of PDF files (either at the side or bottom of the
screen), look for a paper clip or a menu option to view attachments. If you click that, you should see a list of the pages in the PDF
package.

Viewing files with Linux: This works with the default PDF viewer that comes pre-installed with Ubuntu. While viewing this
cover page in the PDF viewer, click "View" on the top toolbar, and check the box that says "Side Panel". That will bring up the
side panel. The side panel will show only this cover page. Click the ‘arrow’ at the top of the side panel, and it will give you the
option to view "attachments." If you click that, you should see a list of PDF files, which are the pages in the PDF package.

Social Sciences and Humanities Conseil de recherches en
Research Council of Canada sciences humaines du Canada

684

“REVUE POUR LES JEUNES FILLES.”

communicatif. ... On ne dira jamais assez de la puissance
de la vie interieure, l’influence d’une fleur aimee cultivee sur
la fenetre, le charme d’un vieux fauteuil oil le grandp^re
s’est assis.”

And the writer concludes with an earnest note of warning
and entreaty, which will surely find an echo in many an
English heart, to cultivate the inner life of the soul, and
to cling to hearth and home. “ Rallumons la flamme au
foyer eteint, creons nous des abrits invioles. . . . Ou l’amour
trouve un autel et la patrie un culte.”

We must pass over, without comment, the two interesting
papers on “ High Schools for girls in England,” and on
“Painting as a profession,” and briefly glance at the account
of the “ Exhibition of Women’s Work,” with which the first
number of the Review concludes.

A few years ago the question as to the influence of woman
upon the artistic movement, then beginning to make itself
felt in France, was discussed at a congress held at the “Ecole
des beaux arts,” and it was there decided to develop the
artistic taste and intelligence by every possible means.

The writer of the paper, evidently a lady of culture,
strongly insists upon the need of artistic education for all,
not only for those persons born with the talent to execute
designs with needle or pencil by, as it would appear, magic
skill , no, this education is as needful for her who buys as for
her who is an artist from her cradle. “ Car si comme,
ouvriere et productrice, la femme est passee maitresse en
certains arts, c’est surtout comme acheteuse qu’elle exercise
une action incalculable sur l’ensemble des arts industriels.
Et cest a cause de cette immense influence c’est afin que
le choix de 1 acheteuse devienne de plus en plus judicieux
qu il impoite que la femme recoive une education artistique
qui la mette a meme d’aller au beau avec un gout plus sur et
un amour plus fervent . 99

This extract, as it seems to us, contains a thought sugges-

T tG g^ls. W ith it we conclude our notice of the

evue poui Us Jeunes Filles y in the hope that it will meet with
avoura e reception amongst many of the girls of our

ABLE TO TEACH FIRST LESSONS.

By Miss S. B. K. Warren.

Why is it that we constantly meet with this phrase in the
advertisements of those who evidently have a keen sense of
the limits of their capabilities r

Without at all venturing to sit in judgment upon those who
use the words simply as a “ limitation clause,” is it not quite
obvious that there is a danger of our forgetting what really
is involved in teaching first lessons, and that the work may
come to be regarded as that which can be done by anyone,
anyhow, without preparation or consideration ?

We smile at the story of the very young doctor, who in
answer to a question concerning his progress in the healing
art, confidently replied, “ I think I am getting on very well,
I can cure children’s diseases now!” We would listen
incredulously if anyone ventured to assert that a ’prentice
hand would be the right one to lay the foundations of some
lofty building. Are the first steps in an unknown land,
wisely taken by an inexperienced traveller r Would a vessel
be allowed to make her maiden voyage under the command
of an untried seaman ? First things are eminently important.
A flaw in the foundation could never be rectified. To follow
a false track in an untrodden country might entail grevious
disaster. The vessel unskilfully handled would probably
come to grief. First lessons lay the foundation of cdl future
education. First lessons lead a child into a new world. First
lessons open a child’s eyes to the fact that life needs guidance,
that it has dangers and safeguards, storms and calms. Is it,
then, a light thing to lay claim to an ability to teach first

lessons ?

Perhaps among the many difficulties which must be
encountered by the teacher of first lessons, one of the most
striking is the fact that, whereas in the- acquisition of all
knowledge the student must make the known a stepping-

686

ABLE TO TEACH FIRST LESSONS.

stone to the unknown, with a young child the known is
such an infinitesimal quantity that it barely affords standing
room for the tiny foot. A story, read so long ago that the
details and surroundings have all but faded into oblivion,
affords a good illustration of this difficulty. By some over-
sight a workman was left by his companions upon an
inaccessible tower. Not until the means of descent had
been removed was his position discovered. It was im-
possible to reach him speedily unless he could establish
some means of communication with those below. After
some minutes of uncertain suspense, an idea occurred to
the prisoner. Removing his knitted sock he carefully
unravelled it until he had a large ball of wool. Weighted
by a small pebble he let one end drop, and cautiously lowered
it until it reached the eager hands below. To that weak
thread his friends tied a slender cord, and when it had been
drawn up by the captive it was replaced by a thicker one,
which was strong enough to bear the weight of a heavy rope’
to which ladders were fastened, and thus in due time the man
was liberated. A little infant is at first completely isolated
from the beings which surround it. Slowly ■ its faculties

awaken, impressions are received by the dawning intellect

it learns to associate words with the objects they represent ;
then the gift of language is granted, and the little thread of
speech is felt to be a means of communication with the outer
world. What a slender little thread it is ! Only those who
have tried to teach first lessons can understand how very
limited is the vocabulary of a little child. We have heard of
missionaries who found that their quickest mode of mastering
the rudiments of an unwritten dialect was to spend much
time with the native children, because they would use only
the simplest words, and those would soon grow familiar by
constant repetition. A lady writing from East Africa says
that one of her chief difficulties in teaching is the poverty of
the Swahili language, and the impossibility of finding
equivalents for English words. For instance, they use the
same u ord for God’s throne in heaven as they use for a tiny
three-legged stool ; also crown is the same word as turban.

Ihe children have never seen a crown, and must imagine
that “ a crown for Jittle children ” is something like the head-
gear won by the Arabs ! In a lesser degree this is just the

ABLE TO TEACH FIRST LESSONS.

687

difficulty which meets every teacher of young children.
Iheir language is not yet ours, many words we use convey
no distinct impression to their minds ; they are, all un-
consciously, yet most really learning the English language.
\ou try to teach a simple history lesson to a class of young
children. You speak of a baron , and in response to the look
of incomprehension, which is childhood’s mental flag of
distress, you explain that a baron is another name for a
knight.

A sudden remembrance of a happy ignorance regarding
the vagaries of English spelling suggests the dangers of a
confusion of ideas, so you hasten to add that this knight
has no nocturnal connection, that he was a powerful man,
a brave man who led others to battle. Yet, wdien all is
done, there is still a possibility that a baron, drawn by
fancy’s pencil, aided by the partly understood details you
have furnished, may figure before the little ones’ mental
vision as a kind of historical compound of Goliath and
Jack the Giant Killer.

That a king reigns seems a simple statement, but we must
remember that the known fact that “ it rains ” does not, by
any means, help directly in suggesting the new idea of regal
power. To a grown-up mind, accustomed to the beautiful (?)
idiosyncrasies of the English language, there is little con-
fusion suggested by the different meanings of the same
word ; to a child it is quite a different matter : it is not
easy all at once to apply a new meaning to a word already
familiar in a wholly different connection. For instance:
was there not something not quite surprising in the wild
attempt made by a small bewildered mortal, to fill up the
hiatus caused by a treacherous memory

“ 12 inches one foot,

3 feet . . • one ’

Another child, when asked the meaning of forefathers,
answered unhesitatingly and without thought of irreverence
« My own father, God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Ghost.” The deliberate assurance of the rep y
seemed to suggest that the answer was not quite impromptu,
but was the outcome of some chain of reasoning, though how

af miKt remain a mystery.

a 1_ „ -.armlt UfU C

6SS

ABLE

TO TEACH FIRST LESSONS.

It is just possible that some idea of the Trinity had got
lixed up with the term Godfather. Does not the thought
ofaTe stumbling-blocks, strewn upon the road to learning,
at least emphasize one obvious, if not always recollected,
tr^h, that, in order to teach first lessons with any measure
of success, the teacher must possess not only an unlimited
stock of patience, but the gift of sympathy, which is alluded
to in the title of one of Charles Reade’s novels, “Put
yourself in his place.” If we hope to roll away the impend-
ing boulders we must come down to the level of the struggle,
no't “ talk down ” from a distant height of conscious superiority,
but standing side by side, aim at seeing the obstacles as
they appear to him. An intelligent child will intuitively
appreciate an honest effort to lend assistance to his groping
intellect, and respond by making the mental effort, which
means progress. Another source of bewilderment is the
constant change of standpoint we are required to make
while studying, even in the simplest way. Perhaps, in one
morning, a child to whom the division of time into periods
is theoretically unknown, and practically limited to the
days of the week, is given a Bible lesson, involving the
mention of the life and customs of the patriarchal age. A
lesson in English history brings on the scene an entirely
new' pageant, and most probably in the reader or geography
book life, in its most modern aspect, will be dealt with.
Such translations are inevitable, but surely they suggest
the necessity tor patient explanation, and we cannot
blame as stupid the small querist who, hearing of the
sad state of the more civilized Britons, deserted by the
Romans and threatened by the wild northern savages,
wanted to know “Why they did not call out the Militia?”
There is still another difficulty attending the use of different
books in the amount of credence to be rightly given to each.
A child is told of some miracle recorded in Scripture, and
with an unquestioning faith accepts the marvel. Again, he
reads some wonderful story of fairy - land, and if ’ the
distinction between God’s power and man’s fiction is not
clearly pointed out, most probably the fairy tale and the bible
nanative will be equally believed, for instance a little boy
was asked a question, the right answer to which would have
required a reference to Jonah’s gourd, instead of which,

as an

ABLE TO TEACH FIRST LESSONS.

689

instance of miraculously rapid growth, he unexpectedly
named “ Jack s beanstalk ! ” The subject of truthfulness
brings us to one of the deepest problems which must be
faced by the teacher of first lessons. Children are by nature
trustful, and few things are sadder than the thought of the
revelations of insincerity which await even the most
fortunately circumstanced. They must be taught that all
stories are not credible, that even where truth is aimed at
the writer may fail through ignorance or prejudice ; but there
is something terrible in the thought that the teacher herself
may through inconsistency prove an unlimited object lesson.

Is it fair to punish a child for telling a lie, and then to play
upon his innocent credulity by some dishonest evasion, some
miserable half-truth which saves trouble at the time, but
sooner or later will be discovered by the victim, who will
naturally feel a real though probably unexpressed resentment
towards the perpetrator of the fraud. Woe to us if we cause
these little ones to stumble, if we suggest the first doubt by
our injustice or self-pleasing invention, and by the deadly
blast of insincere praise or unfair blame wither the tender
plant of a child’s faith. Our warmest sympathy goes out to
those who seek to protect the lives and bodies of children, to
save them from the inhuman treatment to which they are so
often subjected. But is there not need for watchful care, lest
by unintentional, but still real cruelty, the souls of children
are hurt and dwarfed by those who voluntarily accept the
responsibility of teaching first lessons.